Who wants to be a millionaire? NY is looking for 12

There are 12 “missing millionaires” in the state who are holding unclaimed jackpot tickets of $1 million or more.

The New York Lottery will begin to search for the ticketholders at Star Wine and Liquors in Monroe, Orange County. The Powerball winning ticket won there will expire Jan. 5. Unclaimed tickets expire one year after the game’s drawing, Gannett’s Ashley Hupfl reports.

“A lucky individual’s holiday season could be vastly improved – and they don’t know it yet,” Gardner Gurney, acting lottery director, said in a statement.

The state Lottery will send out lottery stars Yolanda Vega and Gretchen Dizer to find the missing winners starting on Thursday at 1:30 p.m. at Star Wine and Liquors. Over the next few months they will visit locations where other unclaimed winning tickets were sold to attempt to find the “missing millionaires.”

“Yolanda and Gretchen are taking a boots-on-the-ground approach to finding these ‘Missing Millionaires,’ going directly to the ‘scene of the sale’ in hopes of locating their currently unknown individual,” Gurney said.

Alan Short, the owner of Star Wine and Liquors, said he has seen a larger crowd of people looking to buy lottery tickets now that Powerball was won at his store. The unclaimed ticket is worth $1 million.

“We have no idea who it is. We ask customers when they come in and we had a sign out for a while, but nobody has claimed it,” Short said. “I really wish someone would claim it. I’d hate for somebody to be out $1 million.”

There’s also an unclaimed $1 million ticket at M & M Super Shoppe in Suffern, Rockland County. The rest are in New York City or on Long Island.

A full list of the unclaimed tickets in the state worth $1 million or more are below: